Friday September 6, 2019
Life is strange.
Life is exciting.
Life is crazy.
Life is experiencing what is around you.
Life is slow.
Life is fast.
Life is happy.
Life is sad.
Life is friends.
Life is family.
Life is laughing.
Life is BRAVE.
Life is LOVE.
Life is being brave and loving life - no matter what you do.
I think about these things every day. Some decisions we make
influence how our life will be or how it will change. Some decisions we regret
and others change how we look at and live our life.
Life puts everything into perspective when we are tired or
frustrated and we just want to give up, but we don’t. Life is not caring if
someone is mean to you because there are billions of other people in the world.
Life is shared experiences with people “who get you.” Life is being grateful
for what you have because being alive is what life is all about.
2,024 days between February 20, 2014 which was the day of
diagnosis of Non-hodgkins lymphoma high grade Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma
(DLBCL) and September 6, 2019.
Just one time period of the 19,853 days so far on this
planet for me.
Every day should be celebrated, appreciated and cherished.
January 31, 2020, will mark 20,000 days alive. Party anyone?
September 6, 2019: It was a check-in and a check-out at the doctor's office today. Everything looked great. I am done and it's a relief. Five years of follow-up care and I got the all clear.
Here is my journey from February 20, 2014 to today:
Within 4 months of February 20, 2014, I had undergone
numerous blood tests, pokes, prods, 6 rounds of RCHOP chemotherapy and
countless pills on each different day of the 14-day chemo regime each round.
(The steroids were fun for cleaning the house.) Then it was all the PET and CAT
scans that could determine the progress of chemotherapy and its mission to
decrease the number of cancer cells. Some good drugs and fantastic supportive friends helped me reach the first goal. Finally, on June 19, 2014, I heard the
words (just barely) that treatment had worked. I could get on with my life. It
has been a whirlwind since then.
The last half of 2014 was way better than the first half: Midsummer
celebrations in Sweden. Charlotte, NC and then Florida to celebrate 50 years of
marriage for my parents. Moved to London. Kids started at new school. Weekend
in Malta. Personal shopper and a new wardrobe. All the NFL games in London.
Me with a very, very short hairstyle. Making new friends as
the new me. Getting to explore London. Girl’s weekend in Lisbon. Christmas
celebrated in London.
2015: Haircut, 6-month cancer check-up and chemo port
removed during visit to Sweden in January. Visits from so many friends
during the next year. Mauritius
for February break, which replaced the cancelled trip from the year before when
diagnosed. Family trip to Sierra Nevada in Southern Spain for Easter. My 50th
birthday celebration in London with old and new friends from around the world.
More visits from friends. Girl’s weekend in Stockholm. Memorable Family Weekend
with a few other families in Tenby, Wales for the bank holiday in May. Uni
visits for Kevin. Drove through Europe to Sweden for the summer.
1st year in remission seemed like I did
everything because I didn’t want to miss out on life. I was exhausted from living life but so much richer for all
of the experiences.
Explored England at the end of the summer with a highlight
Banksy’ Dismaland park in Weston-Super-Mare. Peter completed first Bloodwise
London to Paris bike ride. More visits to Sweden for haircuts. Girl’s weekend
in London. Then we said goodbye to the world’s best dog, Sophie just before Christmas.
That is an unfair part of life.
2016: We bought a house in London. Berlin weekend with the
girls. Long weekend with friends and family on Osea Island. The highlight of
the year was my first London to Paris Bike ride for the Bloodwise Cancer Charity
in September. My “Be Brave, Love Life” team of Peter, Aaron, Eileen, Iannick
and myself raised almost £10,000 for blood cancer research. Then I was lucky to
witness the birth of Sophia and Alexander in November. We rounded off this year
with a fantastic visit down under to Australia. Counting my blessings.
2017: Israel. Scotland. Tuscany. Puppy Skye brought home. Madrid. Sweden. Taos. Charlotte. Colorado.
2018: Nice,
France girl’s weekend. Drove through Europe to Sweden. Gotland. Amsterdam
Girl’s weekend. Turks and Caicos
and Charlotte to end the year.
2019: Ten days
in Colombia- it was amazing. P!nk
in Concert three times: Charlotte, Greenville and London. Valencia with the
boys. My brother and family visit in July to London and Paris. Finished the
summer with house renovations…….(currently ongoing) Lost more than 10 kgs, finally.
Through all the ups (noted above) and downs (noted inside my
head) the one thing that always gets me through is remembering that life is
precious and to BE BRAVE and LOVE LIFE in everything that I do.
That’s what keeps me going………
And the family, the friends, the support, the love, the caring, the crying, the dog, the gelato, the doctors ..... all parts of my life, so essential and so inspiring and it wouldn't be life without them.
My one take-away is the same now as it was more than 5 years ago upon hearing the diagnosis:
BE BRAVE, LOVE LIFE.
(Here is the journey in pictures.)
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| Great hair. Realizing it will be gone soon. After diagnosis but before treatment. February 2014 |
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| 1st Chemo session. Not so bad as I thought it would be. |
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2nd chemo session. No hair and a port operated in above my heart to get the drugs directly to the cancer cells.
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| Infected toenail removal same day as Eric in for DKA |
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| Eric 3 days after intensive care for DKA. |
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| Swedish doctor when he gave the good news of remission in June 2014. |
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Bald in the USA. Key West July 2014
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| London, August 2014 - taking precautions. |
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| Sophie in London. |
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| Malta, September 2014 with nice grey hair. |
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| Lisbon girl's weekend November 2014. Lucky me. |
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| 6 months of hair growth. Out of control. |
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| Six month check up in Sweden and a hair cut January 2015. |
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| Mauritius, February 2015 |
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| Paradise |
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| Sierra Nevada, Southern Spain April 2015 |
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| My amazing friends at my 50th Birthday party in London. April 2015 |
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Stockholm May 2015, girl's weekend.
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| Tenby, Wales May 2015 |
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| Dismaland, Weston-Super-Mare August 2015 |
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| Photoshoot with Sophie, November 2015. |
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| Girl's weekend, Berlin Germany April 2016 |
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| London to Paris for Bloodwise, September 2016 |
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| Be Brave Love Life Team |
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| Aaron, Iannick, Peter, Eileen and I at the finish line in Paris. |
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| Newborns Sophia and Alexander November 2016 |
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| Christmas down under with Charmian and family. AMAZING. December 2016 |
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| Squeaky Beach, Australia December 2016 |
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| Jerusalem, Israel February 2017 |
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| Aberdeen, Scotland February 2017 |
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| Sophie and Alexander's photoshoot in Aberdeen |
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| A great day cycling in Tuscany, April 2017 |
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| Skye is brought home. April 2017 |
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| Girl's weekend, Madrid May 2017 |
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| Magical week in Taos, NM November 2017 |
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| Eric and I visited our friends in Colorado. |
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| New Year's Eve in Charlotte, NC 2017 |
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| The new Space Force, January 2018 |
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| Nice, France, April 2018 |
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| Never liked pictures of myself before cancer. I have learnt to embrace them now. Turks and Caicos, December 2018 |
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| My boys. December 2018 |
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| Not bad at selfies..... |
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| Loving Life. |
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| Bogota, Colombia, February 2019 |
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| (These 2 chiquitas....) Villa de Leyva, Colombia |
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| Rosario Islands, Colombia |
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| Mia and I. She has been there from the beginning. |
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| P!nk Concert with Nikki. March, 2019 |
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| Valencia, Spain, April 2019 |
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| Fun, Fun, Fun in Paris (and London) with this gang. July 2019 |
then I
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| Today it is just the scars left. London, September 2019 |
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| All clear after 5 years. CANCER FREE at the Royal Marsden September 6, 2019 |
